It is desirable to provide window and door head flashing for directional drainage of water and moisture. It is desirable that the apparatus and method can be used for construction in all price ranges of housing, and for any door or window width. In one embodiment of the current invention, a head flashing is provided which can typically be manufactured by extrusion and either cut to a desired length to fit the door or window width, or used with other similar elements and connectors to establish a desired final length. End pieces and optional center joining elements may be provided for field assembly.
Copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/730,414 by applicant describes a window sill pan or door sill pan flashing. The sill pan has an inclined base, window or door supports which can be extruded as part of the base unit, and end cap corner elements which can be snapped or otherwise attached to the base. Sill pan offsets provided in the rear sill pan wall and in the front flange create a flow path for water to drain from the sill. The base may be solid or hollow with window or door supports extending vertically through the base. The sill pan may be manufactured by extrusion, and end caps may be injection molded. The base may be fabricated from fiberglass, metal, or plastic. A window support means is provided in a horizontal orientation so that the base can be extruded.
It is desirable to provide a head flashing and jamb flashing system integrated to perform together that can be used for doors or windows of any length, height, or shape.
It is desirable to provide economical flashing devices that can be used in most construction. One way to provide a relatively low cost device is to extrude a base unit to achieve low cost manufacture. It is desirable in such applications to provide head flashing which can be extruded in relatively long lengths suitable to be cut in the field in order to accommodate different size windows and doors.
It is desirable to manufacture window and door sill flashing elements in an efficient and economical extrusion process, to supply the elements in relatively long lengths, and to cut the elements to a desired length at a construction site. This manufacturing and installation method may provide flashing elements that are more readily available to builders and which are more economical than purchasing prefabricated sizes from a supplier who is required to stock a large number of possible widths. This manufacturing and installation method eliminates the need for special ordering of head flashing for specific field dimensions.
Also, if an injection molding tool were required for each size, then relatively high volumes of each size would be required to pay for the tool. It is difficult to order and store many different sizes of flashing units for the variety of window and door dimensions which are used in construction. By designing the head flashing for manufacture by extrusion, a single extrusion tool and a single injection molding tool for end pieces can provide base units of a variety of lengths. In some embodiments, sections of base may be connected to establish a desired length. In other embodiments, the base may be cut to a desired length.